Use of irony in Crime and Punishment and A Doll's HouseThere are many connections between Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky and A Doll's House, by Henrik Isben. Each character goes through many ironic situations. Dramatic, situational and verbal irony is used in both works. Dramatic irony is used in Crime and Punishment. The reader knows that Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov killed the pawnbroker Alyona Ivanovna and her sister Lizaveta Ivanovna. A quote to support this is: "He took out the axe, raised it with both hands, scarcely conscious of what he was doing, and almost effortlessly, almost effortlessly, almost mechanically, brought the butt of it down upon the old man's head." woman." (Dostoevsky 114) No one in the novel knows who killed the pawnbroker and her sister, except Raskolnikov. Police officer Porfiry Petrovitch suspects that Raskolnikov killed the pawnbroker and his sister, but cannot prove it. The reader also knows that Luzhin puts money in Sofya Semyonovna Marmeladov's pockets when she is not looking. After Sofya, whose nickname is Sonia, finishes talking to Luzhin she leaves. Sonya has no idea that Luzhin put money in her pocket. Raskolnikov's friend Andrei Semyonovitch Lebezyatnikov was present when all this took place. "All this was observed by Andrei Semyonovich." (Dostoevsky 460) Luzhin goes to a reception for Sonia's father, Semyon Zakharovitch Marmeladov, and announces that Sonia is a thief. Sonia immediately denies the accusation. Luzhin tells her to look in her pocket. Surely the money he was missing was there. Luzhin wants Sonia to marry him but she doesn't love him. Luzhin plans to blackmail Sonia into marrying her. The......middle of paper......fire. Nora is simply stating that the temperature inside the house is warm. Nora then gets up and, “She closes the stove door and moves the rocking chair aside.” (Isben 15) All three types of irony are used in the two works. Crime and Punishment and A Doll's House would be incomplete without irony. Irony plays an important role in any type of literature. Irony is used to help show the opposite of what is actually said and/or done. I think that without irony there would be no literature. I think literature would be boring and banal if there wasn't irony to add to its originality and creativity. Works cited: Dostoevsky, Fyodor. Crime and punishment. Trans. Constance Garnet. New York: Modern Library, 1950.Ibsen, Henrik. A doll's house. In four main comedies. Trans. James McFarlane and Jens Arup. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981.